


The morning after

by obbets



Series: Small Town AU [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, F/M, small town AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 14:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18625540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obbets/pseuds/obbets
Summary: Sometimes when you care about someone, you have to do what's right for them. Even if it hurts you. Even if it hurts them.It will be okay, in the end.She's sure of it.It has to be.





	The morning after

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bubblegum_monroe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblegum_monroe/gifts).



Rosa wakes up with a weight on her chest. The pale light streaming in through the gauzy curtains of her balcony doors tells her that it’s earlier than she would normally ever be awake, but then again, she had gone to sleep earlier than she was accustomed to the night before. She stares at the ceiling from her bed, her brain taking its time to come online, as it does every morning. Slowly, she becomes aware that the weight on her chest is a person, her hands scritching idly through his hair as he sleeps, in the same hoodie he had been wearing last night when he had climbed up to her balcony window, when she had been crying, and he had wanted to make sure she was all right. 

He had said a lot of things last night. Many of them sweet, some of them concerning. 

She had been crying yesterday. It was not because people were treating her poorly, these days. (Well, it wasn’t completely due to that. Which is not to say that it doesn’t bother her - no, it definitely, definitely bothers her. She’s used to being liked, to being charming. To people treating her with respect, to people wanting to talk to her, to people having her around and wanting it that way. To not receiving quite so many comments in the street, to being treated with respect. Yes, much as she would rather that were not the case, it bothers her.) But it was worse, in some ways, because - well, it was eye-opening. She had known that the people in this town were awful to those who weren’t on the ‘inside’, but. She hadn’t known, she hadn’t understood how bad it was. How awful it was, how fucking _much_ it affected your everyday life. 

She couldn’t walk down the street without some weird fucking white boy calling her mami or being hit on. It had happened before, sure, but now it was almost constant. She pretends she doesn’t hear people talking about her, about how easy she is, about how she had managed to keep it under wraps but look how the mighty have fallen, eh? Boys she had rejected now looking so pleased and telling people that _they_ had rejected _her_ , and weren’t they right to do it? They had always known she was a slut hadn’t they?

Despite the fact that she had been so careful, so very circumspect, never allowed any image of that sort to take root - it hadn’t made a difference. But then again, the truth doesn’t matter in this town, does it? It never had. Hyperion and Eos had been run out of town because they hadn’t been liked, and they hadn’t been liked because they were rebellious kids who acted out. If they had been two different people, more palatable, like their parents, she did not doubt that the aftermath of that awful day would have been very different. 

It wasn’t fair, and it never had been. 

But she hadn’t known how _bad_ it was. 

She’s a grown woman, now. It’s bad, it’s bad for her. But she’s a big girl and she can handle herself. It’s not the end of the world. 

Hyp, Eos… They had been kids. And she knew for a fact that they had had it worse. She had seen them walking stiffly, seen bruises hastily covered by sleeves pulled down, seen split lips and burst knuckles. Nobody had laid a hand on Rosa - well. Not in violence.   
So yeah, it was pretty awful. She didn’t love being treated like she was, these days. She didn’t enjoy hearing these things said about her. She liked being liked, being wanted, being favoured.

But it isn’t the end of the world for her. 

She wonders if the same could be said for the two scared teenagers that had been chased out of this town by an angry mob ten years ago. 

Rosa knows, she _knows_ that Hyperion cares about her. It’s clear, it’s so obvious. He had been so cold to her when he first got back. Then kinder, then… cold again, when they had maybe both said and done some regrettable things. And now, he was here, he had come here, to try and make her feel better. 

She didn’t have it in her to be angry with him. She’s not angry. 

He had been angry with her. She’s not sure whether he’s still angry now. He’s hurt, though, isn’t he? Still hurting over something that happened over a decade ago. His words last night (and the careful spaces he had left in between them) had made that clear enough, hadn’t they?

But… he shouldn’t be. It isn’t _right_. It’s been so long, far too long. He should have moved past it, moved on from her by now. But he’s stuck on her, still. And, much as she doesn’t want to admit it, he shouldn’t be. 

She runs her fingers through his hair, and she thinks, while she waits for him to stir.


End file.
